Corpus Christi ISD trustees discuss budget suggestions

CORPUS CHRISTI - Most of the more than 200 emails detailing cost-saving ideas for Corpus Christi ISD suggested officials go to a four-day academic week.

Superintendent Scott Elliff said the idea is a great suggestion, but the district would need a waiver from Education Commissioner Robert Scott.

And the idea would mean less instruction time or more instruction in a condensed amount of time.

"I'm not sure reducing our instructional time is something we would want to be doing," Elliff said.

Corpus Christi Independent School District officials set up an email account in March to allow the community to send ideas on areas where the district could trim as officials project to lose as much as $16 million in state funding.

Officials also conducted a community survey and another to poll teachers on instructional areas to consider cutting.

Trustees discussed ideas for budget planning Monday. No action on the budget was taken.

Trustee Carol Scott said she liked an idea for a four-day academic week at the high schools.

She asked district staff to consider a four-day week in a future school year, in which Fridays could be for student tutoring and teacher planning. The schedules would mimic those at many colleges, and many teachers already are absent on Fridays to help with school events or family, she said.

Other community ideas include reducing central office staff, athletic travel and energy usage.

The surveys covered areas the board had discussed since March, such as clustering magnet student pickup sites at students' neighborhood schools and analyzing daycare programs at Carroll, Ray, Moody, Miller and Coles high schools.

The district plans to save $150,000 by reducing benchmark testing, he said, because next year there will be a new state-mandated test that won't align with current practice tests.

The district also plans to save $1.8 million in eliminating 39 central office administrator and staff positions, mostly through attrition.

Elliff said no one has lost their job unless they were working under a grant program in which the money ran out.

Many school finance experts are predicting reduced state funding and funding mechanisms to change each upcoming biennium, Elliff said.

"We do need to consider this to be the new normal," he said, adding that trustees need to be mindful of district spending and planning.

Trustee Lucy Rubio said she encouraged the community to continue providing trustees and the district with ideas.

"We got to hold hands, make it work and make sure we do whatever is possible to work this budget," she said. "It's going to be tough."

The board plans to have a budget workshop July 18. The central office will be closed from June 27 to July 6 for summer vacation, officials said.

HOW TO HELP

Submit cost-saving ideas to Corpus Christi Independent School District officials by sending an email to budget@ccisd.us.